Stephen Thompson to meet Rory MacDonald at UFC Fight Night Ottawa

During Friday’s “Unstoppable” media conference, UFC president Dana White announced that the promotion’s initial foray into Canada’s capital city of Ottawa would feature a clutch welterweight bout between Stephen Thompson and Rory MacDonald.

The bout — which will be the card’s main event — is expected to have title implications.

The 33-year-old Thompson is coming off of a huge first-round TKO of Johny Hendricks on Feb. 6 at UFC Fight Night 82 in Las Vegas. It was the first time that Hendricks had been stopped in a fight. Overall, Thompson has won six fights in a row, dating back to his UFC 160 decision over Nah-Shon Burrell.

“Wonderboy” has won four of his last five bouts via either TKO or KO.

Though Canada’s own MacDonald is coming off a loss against welterweight champion Robbie Lawler, the fight went down as one of the finest in UFC history. After a back-and-forth battle in which the 26-year-old MacDonald was winning on the scorecards, he succumbed via TKO in the fifth round at UFC 189 in July.

Before then MacDonald had won three fights in a row, with victories over fellow contenders Demian Maia and Tyron Woodley.